High School Musical
by Kate Cee
Summary: Casey and Derek are playing the lead roles in their school's adaptation of Disney's High School Musical.  But will their awkward onstage romance turn into something real?  DASEYFIC RATED T for now, may move up to M eventually.  Read and Review!
1. Prologue: How It All Began

**Author's Note: This is my first Life With Derek ****fic****! It is ****Dasey****, so if that offends you I'm sorry. For my purposes, Derek is a good singer, because when I wrote this I was somehow under the impression that he was. ****Haha****, oh well. Also, if you love High School Musical, this might make more sense to you.  
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**High School**** Musical**

Prologue

**How It All Began  
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Casey paced the hallway outside of Mrs. Robinson's classroom, eagerly anticipating the posting of the names of the stars of the school musical. They were doing their adaptation of the musical "_High School Musical_", and Casey hoped to get the part of Gabriella. In fact, if she didn't get the part, she wouldn't do the play at all, it was that simple.

As Mrs. Robinson's door swung open, she could see a smile on the woman's face, and Casey immediately knew she had gotten the part. The only thing to worry about now was who was going to play Troy, her love interest. She guessed it might be some drama nerd, but really hoped that it was Max. She had convinced him to audition, even though he claimed that he couldn't sing a note.

"Excuse me, excuse me," a tall, lanky boy with a serious ego problem proclaimed, "the star has arrived." He scanned the list of names, raising his eyebrows suggestively when he saw Casey's name, but backing away angrily soon after.

"Guess someone didn't get the part," Casey whispered under her breath, and finally mustered the courage to check the list of names.

_Supporting Characters_

Sharpay to be played by Kendra Collins. _Great, that suits her._

Ryan to be played by Sam Weyman. _Working with my ex, how annoying. But I guess Sam isn't that bad when he isn't around _Derek.

Chad to be played by Max Jones. _Wait—if Max isn't playing Troy, then who is?_

_Leads_

Gabriella-to be played by Casey MacDonald

Troy-to be played by Derek Venturi

"Oh my god," Casey thought, but this time she didn't realize that she was saying it out loud.

* * *

As Derek rounded the corner to the Drama department, he could already see Casey in full fledged panic-mode, probably debating whether to run to the guidance counselor's office for a therapy session or wait until he showed up so that she could kill him. 

"Someone doesn't want to share their spotlight, now do they?" He said, unable to keep from smirking.

"How could you?" Casey said, genuinely upset, "How could they pick you? Why does everything in my life go so wrong?"

"One; Easy, I tried out. Two; I rock, _you_ know that. Three; because you are a mess Casey, and you cause destruction everywhere you go, and that's not _my_ fault." Derek ignored her hysterics and read the list of actors chosen.

All of Casey's books fell to the floor, and Derek laughed, almost bending down to help her pick them up, but then stopping himself. It didn't matter. Max was already walking towards them, coming to the rescue.

"Derek," he said in greeting, as he handed Casey back her books and gave her a hug.

Derek ignored his attempt at being nice, and started in on Casey again.

"So how does it feel, knowing that I don't give a damn about any of this musical bullshit and I can still get the lead," he said, intending to drag this out as long as possible.

"He got the lead?" Max said incredulously. Casey nodded miserably.

"That's so shocking?" Derek said, annoyed. Everyone knew he could sing; his band did gigs all over town all the time. Max was a complete ass.

"No man, I'm not saying that," Max shot back, shooting Casey a knowing look. "I'm just saying it's kind of fucked up."

"It's fucked up?" Now Derek was getting angry. He hated all of the football players, they always had a competition with Derek and the other hockey players, but Max was pushing it.

"Well because, you know, they're supposed to _like_ each other & you two are related." Max raised his eyebrows, "So I think that's fucked up, that's all."

Casey didn't say anything, and neither did Derek.

Derek had absolutely no idea what this musical was about. Even though it seemed like every girl he had dated in the past year had obsessed over _High School Musical_, he had never watched it. He didn't know if it was action or romance or drama or anything. All he had cared about was pissing off Casey.

"We're not related," Casey said quietly before storming off, and Derek didn't know whether she was defending Derek or trying to distance herself from him.

* * *

That night at dinner Casey refused to come down. She stayed in her room with Lizzie consoling her. 

Derek was the one who had to explain the situation to George and Nora.

"She's mad because I'm in the musical too, and doesn't want me to steal her spotlight," he explained calmly over dinner.

"That doesn't sound like Casey," George chimed in. "You two have sung together in the past."

Derek shrugged and ate quickly. He didn't want to tell them why this would be a hell of a lot different than the last time.

* * *

Derek knocked on Casey's door before he went to his own room. It swung open and Lizzie passed him. 

"Be careful in there," she whispered, rushing as far away from Casey's dramatics as she could.

"I'm not going to drop out." He had planned on doing so only a few minutes before, but now for some reason he wanted to prove to Casey that he would never back down. That he was better than her.

"Do you have any idea how weird this is going to be? What people are going to say? What Emily and Max and Sam and Kendra and everyone will think?" She shook her head.

"Who cares?" It was unconvincing to him, even. Derek Venturi _did_ care what people thought of him. He had an image, a reputation, and a way of keeping it, and it didn't involve musicals or hanging around Casey.

"Have you seen this movie? Troy and Gabriella fall in love! They have chemistry, they are cute together! That's why I wanted Max to play the part. This is just so weird."

"Look Casey, I'm a boy and you're a girl, as much as I don't want to think about that. This isn't real, it's called acting. And I'll have to be a pretty darn good one to convince people that I like _you_." He laughed, and could almost see Casey beginning to believe him.

"Besides, it's not like acting made the real Troy and Gabriella fall in love in _real _life."

"_Actually_…"

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**So, please review so I know to post more! **


	2. Chapter 1: The Start of Something New

**Author's Note: ****T****o the person who asked, "Who's Nick?" in their review. I have no idea why I wrote Derek's dad's name as Nick, but I changed it to George**** right away. ****And the slow update time had to do with school starting. :(**

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**High School Musical**

Chapter Two

_The Start of Something New_

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The next day, as Casey knocked on Emily's door before school started, she wondered if Emily already knew the news. It went without saying that if Emily had known that Derek had auditioned, than she would have joined drama club ASAP. Emily's crush on Derek only intensified the more he ignored her, even though she had a boyfriend now. 

"What. The. Fuck?" Those were the first words out of Emily's mouth as Casey met her friend at the door to walk to school together. Casey had her learner's permit, but it was only a week more of the wind and cold messing up her hair until she got her license.

"What?" Casey, started walking faster, but Emily kept pace beside her.

"What do you mean, _what_, you know exactly what I'm talking about Casey MacDonald." Emily grabbed Casey's arm and pulled her to a halt as Sir John Sparrow Thompson High School began to come into view.

"You and Derek! In the musical together. You seem pretty calm for someone that normally has a full-fledged panic attack at even the mention of his name."

"You know my 'no Derek talk rule'?" Casey had given that rule to Max & Emily after she noticed how annoyingly he would always pop into conversations at random.

Emily raised her eyebrows, as though Casey being calm was something to worry about rather than something to celebrate.

"Why don't you join the musical, Emily? Not to see Derek, but just for fun!" It was ridiculous. As if Emily would ever have fun doing something constructive with her life that didn't revolve around boys. Some days she wondered how Emily and she remained friends at all.

"Derek's in it…" A smile was tugging at the ends of Emily's mouth, so Casey decided to appease her.

"Yes, and now so are you."

* * *

_Guidance Counselor, Room 101_

The door to Paul's office was open, ready for Casey's weekly appointment with him.

"This is awful, completely awful!"

Paul jumped back, expecting Casey to be happy with her leading role.

"This has to do with Derek?" Paul always went for the obvious, not allowing Casey to ignore her feelings, and they usually had something to do with Derek.

"Yes!" She blinked, "Wait, no! Of course not, it has to do with the integrity of the play being ruined."

"And you think that Derek will do that?"

"Yes! I actually want the musical to be good, not some joke."

"And Derek will make the musical a joke? I hear he's a very talented singer."

Casey rolled her eyes, "Well, if you like bad rock music. Not exactly show-tunes."

"Well, why don't you talk to Derek and explain this to him?"

"Well actually, Derek came to talk to me, and he said that he was going to do the play, and be serious about it and everything."

"Okay, well that sounds pretty mature. Problem solved."

Casey stood up, wondering how Paul could make something so complicated sound so easy.

* * *

Derek pulled away from Kendra briefly enough to check the time on her car's clock. They were in her front seat, awkwardly trying to get some alone time before play practice. Derek was grounded and school was the only time that he got to see her now. It was the reason he had signed on for the musical. Well, one of the reasons. 

"_Der-ek_," she whined, trying to unbutton his shirt. "You think punctuality is more important than your girlfriend?"

He shoved her arm off of his, not exactly roughly, but with just enough force to get her to stop. He checked his light-brown hair in her rearview mirror and his neck for lipstick smears before stepping out of her pink jeep. It was embarrassing, to say the least. He could see Max and some of the other football guys smirking at him. "_One more week, until my license_," he told himself.

"Come on," he said, walking to the other side of the car to open the door for her. "We have the play."

She grabbed his hand, much to his annoyance. The only reason he had stayed with Kendra this long was because she put out. That, and the fact that she was pretty insane whenever he tried to break up with her.

"You know, Derek," she said, looking up at him and batting her eyelashes, "since I'm being so nice about this whole Casey getting the lead role with you thingy, I think that I deserve to be treated a little better."

Derek nodded, rather than answering. He would flirt with any girls he wanted to, hell; he would fuck any girls he wanted to, no matter what Kendra said to him. It was simplest just to pretend to agree with her than deal with another break up.

The door to the auditorium was open, and Derek could only imagine his friends watching from there, making fun of his every move. At least Sam and Max were in the play. Even if both of them were only there to see Casey.

"Derek, Kendra, you are both late! Already! You know that it's only the first day?" Casey stomped down the stairs leading to the head of the stage, her hair wild in curls, and a skirt on. She was probably in costume for Gabriella.

"_Chill_, we're here, and I don't see your boy Max around anywhere, so bother _him_, not me." Derek hugged Kendra tighter to his body, in a sick attempt to make Casey feel bad about her stray boyfriend. He hated Max, not just because he was asshole, but because he was so obviously using his step-sister to try and get into her pants. He doubted Casey would ever do it, but the thought still made him sick.

"Max is coming," she said, and Derek almost felt bad for her as Kendra laughed at Casey.

"Sure he is, _hon_," Kendra sashayed past her, and to the back stage, leaving Derek and Casey alone.

"We have to run through the first song together to see what we sound like in harmony, so come up here."

He felt so much more uneasy singing with Casey than he did singing with D-Rock. He normally felt at ease on stage; it was his one thing that he was actually good at. But here, Casey would of course upstage him, just like always. He looked down at the sheet of notes and lyrics, and started to walk away as he heard the CD player in the corner of the stage begin to play the instrumental part of the song.

"Oh, what the hell," he thought. He decided to go for it.

* * *

_Living in my own world_

_Didn't understand_

_That anything can happen_

_When you take a chance_

He was annoyed right away by the cheesy pop lyrics, wondering how songs like this had made it to number one on the Billboard charts for that many weeks while D-Rock was stuck doing gigs at 25 dollars a pop in kid's grungy basements.

It was Casey's turn to sing, he could tell, but everyone in the room seemed to have paused, and they were all staring at him. So had he completely butchered the song? Was that the problem? Derek was annoyed; they could just count him out if they were going to be that elitist about their crappy musical.

"Derek!" In unison he could hear the high-pitched voices of three girls that annoyed him. Kendra, Emily, and Casey.

"I had no idea my honey could sing like _that_," Kendra cooed, everyone in the room ignoring the background music continuing to play.

Casey was looking down at the ground, and Emily was behind her, wide-eyed. "Yeah, Derek, normally you're just screaming." She seemed to notice how bad that sounded, "Not that, not that the scream music is bad…_exactly_, it's just that this is…you sound _hot_."

Kendra shot Emily a death glare, and then gave Derek a kiss in front of everyone.

"Enough!" Mrs. Robinson, stood up from her seat. Derek had forgotten she was even there. He felt pretty great having girl's fight over him on a stage, even if he had to sing in some dumb play.

"Sing it again, and this time Casey, sing your lines! We need to get some work done if we are going to have the vocals and the choreography down by next month!"

Casey nodded, and motioned for a restart on the song. Derek could practically feel her seething anger towards him, and it was great.

_Living in my own world_

_Didn't__ understand_

_That anything can happen_

_When you take a chance_

Derek was more confident this time, but he still didn't want to dance or anything while he was saying this crap.

_I never believed in_

_What__ I couldn't see_

_I never opened my heart yeah!!_

_To all the possibilities_

Casey's voice was beautiful, as always. He hated to admit it, but it was hard to deny something so obvious. It was one thing to call her ugly, a clutz, a waste of space, because all of those things could be debated; but she really did sound great, and he wouldn't deny her that.

They had to sing together now, and he could feel all eyes on them, and knew this was the deciding factor. Sure, they could both sing, but could they sing together?

_I know that something has changed_

_Never felt this way_

_And__ right here tonight_

_This could be the start_

_Of something new_

_It feels so right_

_To be here with you_

He could see Casey turn towards him, her eyes locking onto his, and he wondered what the fuck she was up to.

_And now looking in your eyes_

_I feel in my heart_

_The start of something new_

She was really getting into it…

He finished the song with her. The rest of drama club went without much actual singing; they had to talk about what a serious obligation this play was after Max and Sam had stumbled in an hour late and Kendra had refused to sing. Derek had no idea how this was actually going to work when the only ones that had any actual talent were him and Casey.

Not that he cared about this play.

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**Author's Note **

**Sorry about the long wait. School started, which completely sucks, but I should update more quickly now that I'm used to my new schedule & moved into my room (I go to boarding school) ****Well, thank you so much for the nice reviews, and sorry if this chapter didn't live up to expectations, but I'm trying to make this story somewhat realistic. :)**

**Please review, it motivates me!**

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